8 Antiquity and Early 



only incorporated by Letters Patent of Edward I., 

 by the appellation of the Wardens or Keepers and 

 Commonalty of the Mystery or Art of Saddlers, 

 London." The reason assigned is clearly anything 

 but a strong one, and falls to support his assertion 

 or to make that assertion convlnclncr. It Is not 

 unlikely that the Saddlers' Company, even if they 

 had no earlier charter than that of Edward IIL, 

 had a grant of liberties. It Is extremely likely 

 that they did ; for we find that In the 26th year 

 of the relgfn of Henry II., a.d. 1180, 



A.D. I180. ^ 111 



or nearly one hundred years before 

 the reign of Edward I., that monarch made a 

 swoop upon the adulterine guilds, or guilds set up 

 without the king's license, no less than eighteen 

 guilds in London alone being amerced or fined ; 

 this eighteen included the Goldsmiths. Now the 

 Saddlers' Guild Is not mentioned In the list, and 

 seeing that the guild was, even at that early 

 period, old-established, and could not, had it been 

 unlicensed, have escaped similar treatment, there 

 is every ground for assuming it to have been a 

 warranted guild. Moreover, such an assumption 

 is supported by the fact that the Exchequer Roll 

 of the same year contains a note of the amerce- 

 ment of a guild of Saddlers of the City of York.^ 



^ Pipe Roll, 26 Henry IL, membrane, 5 dors, 



" Of pleas of the same in the City of York. 



"Robert Parsons and Robert Hugges render account of two 

 marks for customs which they unjustly demanded. 



" The same sheriffs render account of twenty shillings from 

 the Guild of the Saddlers for the same." 



